Mods:
Cable management, painted interior and back of case, drilled holes to mount CD drive in center, installed sound dampening on base and side panel, cut holes in motherboard tray for the 4pin power cable and other wires etc, cut grids out of front fan mounts for more air flow, modded white cathode kit to orange color, replaced the blue leds from front bezel/hdd status light to orange leds, Soldered orange leds in the rear and side fans, replaced stock front fans with 2 Thermaltakes including pci slot controllers and side/rear fans with AC.Ryans, added HL. decals.

This was my first build and took me about 6 months of saving money to finish. I have been a huge fan of Half-Life since 1998 and I always wanted to build a HL theme PC mod. This is my tribute to Gordon Freeman.

9/10. first build and mod. my first modded case was horrible compared to this. you have a nice future ahead of you.

I have some suggestions. I think you gotta change that blue led in the Zalman. and soon as I saw this case it didn't really say Half-Life when I think of Half-Life I think about the red I bar and steel because the maps were generally very industrial looking so I thought why not paint the side panel a nice silver or aluminum and use a steel cloth or sponge and smear burgundy to give it that rust look then paint a simple red crowbar across.

9/10. first build and mod. my first modded case was horrible compared to this. you have a nice future ahead of you.

I have some suggestions. I think you gotta change that blue led in the Zalman. and soon as I saw this case it didn't really say Half-Life when I think of Half-Life I think about the red I bar and steel because the maps were generally very industrial looking so I thought why not paint the side panel a nice silver or aluminum and use a steel cloth or sponge and smear burgundy to give it that rust look then paint a simple red crowbar across.

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I was going to change the Zalman led to orange, but then it reminded me of parts of the game. Like the blue is the core reactor surrounded by the orange box. Idk....it makes sense in my mind

I had an idea of painting this case an industrial look with a big crow bar running down the side (where the HL title is) panel. But I ran out of time and money. I thought I was better off with a cleaner look anyways because it would stand out in my house like a sore thumb.

I'd like to know why you drilled holes to mount the drive in the center.

9.5/10

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The Tempest advertised that you can mount up to 9 drives from top to bottom. When I went to install the cd/dvd drive in the center bay there were no back holes or slots to mount the plastic clip (that the drive sits on).

As shown in the picture the top 3 bays have the back mounting holes for the clips/screws. But that's it! why didn't Nzxt run the holes all the way down.

These are the clips: On the rear side (circled) you see where the clips mount to the case.

So I cut the hole for the rear screw mount and the (2) slots for the clips.

Now I could have bypassed this mod my just using the front-left holes and back-right holes(see pic below), but with out using the clips I would have to use washers to fill the gap. I did it because I just wanted a nice sturdy mounted optical drive bay.....and I think I'm addicted to modding!

love the half life theme... orange and black produce a fantastic result.
The only thing I would change is that fan on the side. remove it, and replace it with full cover plexy glass...I believe it would show more!